Slocum on the stand: Ex-girlfriend massacred my family, I just set the house on fire

Matthew Slocum pinned the blame squarely on his ex-girlfriend Wednesday for a triple slaying in White Creek last summer while freely admitting he set their house ablaze with three slain family members inside.

Testifying in his own defense, Slocum’s eyes welled up as he described the pre-dawn hours of July 13 — when prosecutors allege he murdered his mother, stepfather and stepbrother in the house at 118 Turnpike Road, where Slocum lived with the victims, then-girlfriend Loretta Colegrove and their baby, Raymond.

Slocum, 24, said it was Colegrove — not him — who pulled the trigger.

In a voice so low it was nearly inaudible at times, Slocum cast himself as a stunned-but-loyal boyfriend to a woman who just massacred his family.

“I was in my bedroom sleeping and I woke up to the sound of a gunshot,” Slocum, 24, told the jury deciding his second-degree murder case in Washington County Court.

His voice breaking, Slocum said he saw Colegrove shoot his stepbrother, Joshua O’Brien, in the head on the family’s living room floor. Slocum’s mother, Lisa Coon Harrington, 44, and her husband, Dan Harrington, 41, also were shot in the head that morning in their bedroom.

After O’Brien was shot, Slocum said Colegrove aimed a gun on him and said, “Get back in the room!” He said an emotional Colegrove then embraced him.

Slocum recalled asking Colegrove, “What did you just do?” She replied, “What do you mean? Don’t worry about it,” he testified.

Slocum said Colegrove handed him a gas can. He poured gas and set the fire. When asked why he set the home on fire, Slocum said he did not want anyone to see his mother shot in the head.

During cross-examination, Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright asked Slocum if he had admitted under oath he committed arson. Slocum admitted he did.

Kortright also confronted Slocum with two letters the defendant penned from jail — one to Colegrove,another to his brother, Dan. Slocum gave apologies in both letters, neither of which makes any reference to Colegrove being the shooter.